Hello and welcome to my second blog post. I’m already behind on this as I planned to have it posted yesterday (trying to stick with a schedule of posting on Mondays) but that’s okay!
So you’ve seen the first post and you generally know what my blog is going to be about, but what about the person behind the blog? Who is Sarah? What is her story and what motivates her (and yes, I do typically speak in the third person in case you were wondering!)? Well let me tell you!
I was born in Fort Worth, Texas to Leslie and David Guenther. From the very beginning, ours was a family unit based on faith and mutual love and affection. Lol, just kidding – this isn’t going to be one of those bios.
But for real, I WAS born in Fort Worth to Leslie and David. My parents are originally from Iowa/Nebraska (my mom was actually born in Alaska – her father was in the military). I’ve been to the Midwest SEVERAL times and no, I’m not a Nebraska Corn Huskers fan.
It’s funny though because a lot of my family from other parts of the country tell me that I have somewhat of an accent and they especially enjoy how often I say “y’all.” I’ve lived in Texas my whole life so I’ll always deny any trace of an accent in my voice, but honestly, it’s true. My parents have lived here for about 30 years and yet my dad still says wash with an “r” sound – “warsh.” (Example: Go warsh the dishes).
My parents have been working in children’s ministry for most of my life – I’m not a PK (pastor’s kid), I’m a CPK (children’s pastor’s kid). Church has always been important in our family and there’s never been a time that I haven’t attended church. We say we’re nondenominational but we’ve attended several Baptist churches; I guess that’s just the way the game of baseball goes in Texas.
I’m the youngest of three; my sister Nikki is ten years older than me and my brother Josh is six years older. Since my sister and I are so far apart in age, we’re really close. She basically helped raise me and picked out my outfits, did my hair and nails, and babysat me. My brother sometimes helped babysit too but also spent a lot of time playing video games (lol). By the time he got to high school, however, his natural charm emerged and he became a social butterfly.
The fam and I on our recent trip to DC
I went to public school growing up – Westpark Elementary, Applied Learning Academy (ALA), and Arlington Heights High School. I started playing the violin in fifth grade and still play to this day. Though I didn’t choose to study music in college (after all, I did go to the second best music school in the country), I still very much enjoy practicing and playing at both my home church in Fort Worth (Grace Baptist Church) and the church I attend in Denton (Hope Fellowship).
Now let’s get to the meaty stuff. You know where I was born, a little about what my family was like, and where I grew up. It’s time for college and my recent entrance into adulthood (which I still don’t feel like a “real” adult but everyone else seems to think I am).
After graduating high school with several hours of college credit under my belt, I decided to attend the University of North Texas because it’s close but not too close, affordable, and I felt drawn to the overall atmosphere of the campus. I first applied as a film major (thanks Lord of the Rings extended edition films) but soon elected to change my major to something journalism-related (somehow in high school I switched from wanting to study marine biology/zoology to film?). As I got to really thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, I realized that I didn’t know what part of film I was specifically interested in and that writing was where my true talent lay.
I ended up joining a community service organization called UNT SERVES! because my roommate Kaylee (who I emailed before school because we matched on the UNT roommate survey) was in the organization and it sounded interesting. At UNT these are called REAL communities – groups of students who live on the same floor of a dorm and often have similar interests or majors.
Joining UNT SERVES! was a great decision. I met so many new people and had it not been for the organization, I wouldn’t have met many of my closest friends. Example #1 – my amazing roommates, who are pictured below. These women (Glendie, Kendra, and Hanna) are my cheerleaders and supporters; though I’ve only known them for a few years, I know I can absolutely count on them. There’s something to be said for being just friends with someone vs. living with them; sharing a home is when you REALLY get to know someone.
My lovely roommates
So college was an interesting journey for me. At the end of high school I felt unprepared as it seemed I was the only one who didn’t quite know what I wanted to study or where I wanted to go (I didn’t decide on UNT until almost the end of my senior year). Within a span of a couple months, however, I landed on UNT and Journalism/Public Relations. It was a relief but also kind of nerve-wracking; I didn’t entirely know what public relations was but I knew (at least from other peoples’ comments) that I’d probably(?) be good at it.
After a couple semesters I began to see that I was right where I needed to be (major-wise). I was excelling in my classes and enjoyed writing and learning about reporting and ethics. Once I realized that I could graduate a year early, thanks to the many credit hours I earned in high school, I began to plan out the rest of my time in college. I took a few summer classes last year and graduated in May of this year with my bachelor’s in Journalism and two minors – History (thanks high school AP classes) and Women’s & Gender Studies.
Now that I’m a college graduate and have my first adult gig (I’m the PR Coordinator for the Craft Yarn Council/Warm Up America!) I have more time to focus on my personal interests (i.e., starting this blog). Something cool about my new job is that I’ve become really big into crafting. Because I work in the yarn industry, I’ve started learning to crochet (and will soon add knitting) and my goal is to expand into other crafts as well.
So you’ve almost made it to the end of this post, but there’s one more important thing to note! Yesterday was my three month anniversary (don’t worry, no sappy social media posts were made) with my boyfriend Andrew! Andrew was one of the people I met in UNT SERVES! my freshman year and we’ve been really good friends for three years now. We (finally) realized that we had feelings for each other and are now in a serious relationship. Luckily he already knew me pretty well (i.e., he knew how weird I am) so we get along great and I’m excited to see where this thing goes!
Andrew and I at the Dallas Arboretum
Well thanks for reading my second post and for sticking around so long! I hope you enjoyed it and have a wonderful day! 🙂
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